Off-road vehicle

Off-road vehicle
An off-road vehicle is considered to be any type of vehicle which is capable of driving on and off paved or gravel surface. It is generally characterized by having large tires with deep, open treads, a flexible suspension, or even caterpillar tracks.[citation needed] Other vehicles that do not travel public streets or highways are generally termed off-highway vehicles, including tractors, forklifts, cranes, backhoes, bulldozers, and golf carts.[citation needed] Off-road vehicles have an enthusiastic following because of their many uses and versatility. Several types of motorsports involve racing Mercedes-Benz Unimog in the Dunes of Erg off-road vehicles. The three largest "4-wheel vehicle" off-road types of Chebbi in Morocco. Note the high ground [citation competitions are Rally, Desert Racing, and Rockcrawling. clearance due to Portal gear axles needed] The three largest types of All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) / Motorcycle competitions are Motocross, Enduro, and also Desert Racing like Dakar Rallye and Baja 1000.[citation needed] The most common use of these vehicles is for sight seeing in areas distant from pavement. The use of higher clearance and higher traction vehicles enables access on trails and forest roads that have rough and low traction surfaces.

History
One of the first modified off-road vehicles was the Kgresse track, a conversion undertaken first by Adolphe Kgresse, who designed the original while working for Czar Nicholas II of Russia between 1906 and 1916.[1] The system uses an unusual caterpillar track which has a flexible belt rather than interlocking metal segments. It can be fitted to a conventional car or truck to turn it into a half-track suitable for use over rough or soft ground. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Kgresse returned to his native France where the system was used on Citron cars between 1921 and 1937 for off-road and military vehicles. The Citron company sponsored several overland expeditions with their vehicles crossing North Africa and Central Asia.
Nicholas II' Packard Twin-6 with Kgresse track

A huge wheeled vehicle designed from 1937 to 1939 under the direction of Thomas Poulter called Antarctic Snow Cruiser was intended to facilitate transport in the Antarctica. While having several innovative features, it generally failed to operate as hoped under the difficult conditions, and was eventually abandoned in Antarctica.

Off-road vehicle

After World War II, a huge surplus of light off-road vehicles like the Jeep and heavier lorries were available on the market.[citation needed] The Jeeps in particular were popular with buyers who used them as utility vehicles. This was also the start of off-roading as a hobby. The wartime Jeeps soon wore out, though, and the Jeep company started to produce civilian derivatives, closely followed by similar vehicles from British Land Rover and Japanese Toyota, Datsun/Nissan, Suzuki, and Mitsubishi. These were all alike: small, compact, four-wheel-drive vehicles with at most a small hardtop to protect the occupants from the [citation needed] elements.

A cutaway drawing of the Antarctic Snow Cruiser.

From the 1960s and onward, more comfortable vehicles were produced.[citation needed] For several years they were popular with rural buyers due to their off-road and load-lugging capabilities.[citation needed] The U.S. Jeep Wagoneer and the Ford Bronco, the British Range Rover, and the station wagon-bodied Japanese Toyota Land Cruiser, Nissan Patrol and Suzuki Lj's series were all essentially just station wagon bodies on light truck frames with four-wheel-drive drivetrains. Later, during the 1990s, manufacturers started to add even more luxuries to bring those off-road vehicles on par with regular cars. This eventually evolved into what we call the SUV today. It also evolved into the newer Crossover vehicle, where utility and off-road capability was sacrificed for better on-road handling and luxury.

Technical
To be able to drive off the pavement, off-road vehicles need several characteristics: They need to have a low ground pressure, so as not to sink into soft ground, they need ground clearance to not get hung up on obstacles, and they need to keep their wheels or tracks on the ground so as not to lose traction. Wheeled vehicles accomplish this by having a suitable balance of large or additional tires combined with tall and flexible suspension. Tracked vehicles accomplish this by having wide tracks and a flexible suspension on the road wheels.
Swedish Hgglunds Bv206 with wide rubber tracks

Off-road vehicle

The choice of wheels versus tracks are one of cost and suitability. A tracked drive-train is more expensive to produce and maintain. Wheeled drivetrains are cheaper and give a higher top speed. The tracked drive-train has greater off-road capability. Most off-road vehicles are fitted with especially low gearing. This allows the operator to make the most of the engine's available power while moving slowly through challenging terrain. An internal combustion engine coupled to a normal gearbox often has an output Russian GAZ-34039 speed too high. The vehicle often has one of two things, either a very low ("granny") first gear (like the all wheel drive Volkswagen Transporter versions) or an additional gearbox in line with the first, called a reduction drive. Some vehicles, like the Bv206 in the picture on the right, also have torque converters to further reduce the gearing.[citation needed] Many wheeled off-road vehicles have four-wheel drive to keep traction on slippery surfaces. Vehicles designed for use both on and off road may be designed to be switched between two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive so that the vehicle uses fewer driven wheels when driven on the road. Copper-alloy heat exchangers such as CuproBraze are particularly suited for off-road vehicles that must operate for long periods of time under harsh conditions without premature failures. The technology is being used by Russian OEMs such as Kamaz and Ural Automotive Plant, UAZ and GAZ (Russia), MAZ (Belarus), The Finnish Radiator Manufacturing Company (FinnRadiator),[2] Nakamura Jico Co., Ltd. (Japan), Young Touchstone North America, Siemens AG Transportation Systems, and Bombardier Transportation.

Criticism of off-road vehicles

Safety
SUV's are built with higher ground clearance for off-road use and thus have a higher center of gravity, therefore increasing the risk of rollover. When an SUV turns, the vehicle's mass resists the turn and carries the weight forward, thus allowing the traction from the tires to create a lateral centripetal force as the vehicle continues through the turn. The conflict between the top weight of the SUV's desire to go straight while the friction of the tires on the road cause the bottom of the vehicle to move away and out from under the vehicle during a turn. Pickups and SUVs are more likely to be in rollover accidents than passenger cars. According to a study conducted in the United States, pickups have twice the fatality rate of cars and SUVs have nearly triple the fatality rate in rollover accidents. Of vehicles in the United States, light trucks (including SUVs) represent 36 percent of all registered vehicles. They are involved in about half of the fatal two-vehicle crashes with passenger cars, and 80 percent of these fatalities are to occupants of the passenger cars.

Environment
In the United States, the number of ORV users since 1972 has climbed sevenfoldfrom five million to 36 million in 2000. Government policies that protect wilderness but also allow recreational ORV use have been the subject of some debate within the United States and other countries. All trail and off-trail activities impact natural vegetation and wildlife, which can lead to erosion, invasive species, habitat loss, and ultimately species loss[3][4] decreasing an ecosystem's ability to maintain homeostasis. ORV's cause greater stress to the environment than foot traffic alone, and ORV operators who attempt to test their vehicles against natural obstacles can do significantly more damage then those who follow legal trails. Illegal use of off-road vehicles has been identified as a serious land management problem ranked with dumping garbage and other forms of vandalism. Many user organizations, such as Tread Lightly! and the Sierra Club, publish and encourage appropriate

Off-road vehicle trail ethics. ORVs have also been criticized for producing more pollution in areas that might normally have none. In addition to noise pollution that can cause hearing impairment and stress in wildlife,[5] according to the U.S. Forest Service, old-style two-stroke engines (no longer a component of new off-road vehicles, although some are still in use) "emit about 20 to 33 percent of the consumed fuel through the exhaust" and "discharge from two-stroke snowmobile engines can lead to indirect pollutant deposition into the top layer of snow and subsequently into the associated surface and ground water."[6][7] In 2002, the United States Environmental Protection Agency adopted emissions standards for all-terrain vehicles that "when fully implemented in 2012...are expected to prevent the release of more than two million tons of air pollution each year--the equivalent of removing the pollution from more than 32 million cars every year."

Off Road Vehicle Erosion

Negative environmental effects caused by a motorcycle to a portion of the Los Padres National Forest.

Negative environmental effects that occurred when off-road vehicle drivers deliberately left the posted trail. Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Common off-road vehicles

CommonWikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias commercial off-road vehicles include four-wheel-drive pickup trucks like the Ford F-Series, Chevrolet C/K, Dodge Ram, and Toyota Tacoma.Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers) A number of military vehicles have also seen civilian use, including the Jeep CJ and the AM General Hummer. Some, like the early Land Rovers, were adapted to military use from civilian specifications. Specialised commonly availableWikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias off-road vehicles include ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles), dirt bikes, dune buggies, rock crawlers, and sandrails.

Jeep CJ in action

Off-road vehicle

A typical ATV. The ergonomics are very similar to motorcycles, with a saddle and handlebar.

Heavily modified Chevrolet Blazer typical of the United States hobbyist off-roading scene

Jeep Rubicon Rock Crawling.

Sandrail at Silver Lake Sand Dunes.

A 4WD Bus in Fraser Island, Australia

Commercial, military and less common off-road vehicles

European militaries and utilities have used Land Rover Defenders, Haflingers, Pinzgauers, Volvo L3314, and Mercedes-Benz Unimogs for all-terrain transportation. The Portuguese UMM Alter is less common. The military market for off-road vehicles used to be large, but, since the fall of the Iron Curtain in the 1990s, it has dried up to some extent. The U.S. Jeep, developed during World War II, coined the word many people use for any type of light off-road vehicle. In the U.S., the Jeep's successor from the 1980s on was the AM General HMMWV. The Eastern Bloc used the GAZ-69 and UAZ-469 in similar roles.

Unimog at IDEF'07 Arms Fair

Two Polish Honkers in Iraq

UMM Alter

Volvo L3314N

Off-road vehicle

Mahindra and Mahindra Classic used by the Indian Army

Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division test prototype Off-Road Vehicles.

Off-road bus in Iceland

References
[1] MiG-registeret (http:/ / www. home. no/ migreg/ norsk/ kiriletz. html) [2] FinnRadiator; http:/ / www. finnradiator. com [3] Mojave lizard may rate protection - The U.S. will study whether the Mojave fringe-toed lizard, which scientists say is being damaged by off-road vehicles in its habitat, merits federal protection (http:/ / www. latimes. com/ news/ science/ environment/ la-na-lizard12jan12,1,6234267. story?coll=la-news-environment& ctrack=1& cset=true) [4] Officials seek to protect desert reptile - Mojave fringe-toed lizard at risk from people in off-road vehicles (http:/ / www. lvrj. com/ news/ 13702907. html) [5] The Impacts of Off-Road Vehicle Noise on Wildlife (http:/ / www. wildlandscpr. org/ node/ 258) [6] United States Forest Service - Environment and Effects (http:/ / www. fs. fed. us/ r10/ chugach/ forest_plan/ FEIS_VOLUME_1/ chapter3_p1feis. pdf) [7] Addressing the Ecological Effects of Off-Road Vehicles (http:/ / wilderness. org/ content/ addressing-ecological-effects-road-vehicles)

Article Sources and Contributors

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Image:S404-300TDI-erg-chebbi.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:S404-300TDI-erg-chebbi.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.5 Contributors: Bdk, FAEP, Fvanweerdenburg, MB-one, Moebiusuibeom-en, 1 anonymous edits Image:Kegresse tsar17.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Kegresse_tsar17.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Chief tin cloud, Foroa, Glook, Kam Solusar, Leyo, Liftarn, Pantoine, 3 anonymous edits Image:Antarctic snow cruiser cutaway.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Antarctic_snow_cruiser_cutaway.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Original uploader was Carlton Bale at en.wikipedia Image:US 5055th Range Squadron M973 SUSV.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:US_5055th_Range_Squadron_M973_SUSV.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Harald Hansen, High Contrast, Ikar.us File:- at Vankorskoe oilfield.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:-_at_Vankorskoe_oilfield.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0 Contributors: MaxN Image:Motorcycle-Forest-Damage.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Motorcycle-Forest-Damage.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Contributors: GeorgeLouis Image:Orv-damage.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Orv-damage.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors: Athene cunicularia (talk) 05:50, 19 January 2009 (UTC) Image:Offroad Jeep 05760 2.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Offroad_Jeep_05760_2.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Contributors: Nevit Image:Four wheeler.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Four_wheeler.jpg License: unknown Contributors: Fir0002, Morio Image:Offroadvehicle.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Offroadvehicle.JPG License: Public Domain Contributors: Kilom691, Navigator84, Image:Rockcrawling.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Rockcrawling.JPG License: Public domain Contributors: De728631, Elisardojm Image:Sandrail.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Sandrail.JPG License: Public Domain Contributors: Original uploader was Mtxchevy at en.wikipedia Image:4wd bus fraser island.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:4wd_bus_fraser_island.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors: User:Photnart Image:Mercedes Benz Unimog Turkey exhibition side.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Mercedes_Benz_Unimog_Turkey_exhibition_side.JPG License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: KIZILSUNGUR, Matthead Image:Wojsko Polskie Irak DA-SD-05-12334.JPEG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Wojsko_Polskie_Irak_DA-SD-05-12334.JPEG License: Public Domain Contributors: High Contrast, KTo288, MartinHansV, Nemo5576, SuperTank17, Zaccarias, 1 anonymous edits Image:Umm-alter-00.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Umm-alter-00.jpg License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: User:Mr.choppers Image:VolvoL3314N.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:VolvoL3314N.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: User:Helt Image:Mahindra.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Mahindra.jpg License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: hlfass Image:ELORV.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:ELORV.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: U.S. Army File:Bus crossing river (3).jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bus_crossing_river_(3).jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors: Chmee2/Valtameri

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